The menus were full of small dishes, from dumplings, buns, to noodles and congees.

I went there twice already and was able to try different dishes.

Great news that finally there was a place serving comparable soup dumpling, Xiao long bao, to Din Tai Fung‘s.

Equally thin-skinned and very juicy with tender gingery meat, the Dough Zone Xiao long bao were delicious and at a lower price point than Din Tai Fung – a bonus!

The rest of the menu items were hit and miss.

For starters, I had the spicy cucumbers and radish.

Both were tasty.

The spicy sauce was very spicy in the crunchy cucumbers and I just loved the garlic in them.

The dish was less sweet and less sesame flavor than Din Tai Fung’s and yet still good.

The radish was very savory and additive and with a harder crunch.

It reminded me of the radish that my family in Hong Kong ate with plain congee every Sunday morning.

My next favorite would be the pan-fried buns, Sheng Jian Bao.

The buns were soft and the pork filling once again were very juicy, flavored well and just fantastic.

The inconsistency came from frying.

Some of the buns on my plate got the much expected crispy bottom which was the highlight of sheng juan bao — slight burnt, harder crusty bottom gave slight caramelized flavor and added texture to the bun; but others were barely fried and completely paled.

Hopefully they could make the pan-frying process more consistent otherwise it was very much a waste on otherwise really good buns.

I had wonton soup, spicy wontons and leek pockets on one occasion.

The leek pockets were awesome!

Again very juicy; and the skin was light and was pan-fried top and bottom in just right crispiness, totally delicious.

The filling was made with aromatic leeks, mung bean noodle and eggs.

The wontons had very thin skin and smooth which was fantastic except the filling was extremely minimal.

I felt like I was only eating wrapping.

The spicy wonton sauce was good but not as good as the one at Din Tai Fung.

On another occasion, I had beef roll and it was tasty — fresh cilantro with well marinated thinly sliced cold beef in a crispy buttery pancake and a little sauce inside, the textural contrast was great and a very decent dish.

The stewed pork noodle I did not much care for.

It had a nice soy sauce flavor and noodle had great texture; I could not get over the, lack of a better term “porky” flavor of the meat.

It was the unpleasant, “gamey” meat flavor that pork generally should not have.

I also had a crepe-like dish called jianbing guozi, with egg outside and fried dough inside, and that was probably the worse dish I got there.

The wrap was chewy when I was expecting crispiness, and the fried dough inside was completely soggy.

We had a very pricey beef burger which had tender tasty beef with strong cilantro flavor but the bun was doughy and soggy — felt like I was eating a mouthful of flour and soggy from soaking up the grease from frying.

All in all, if one knew what to order, and that the restaurant was consistent in their delivery, the meal would be wonderful.

Dough Zone still had long line on weekends and night-time, and the last time I was there for lunch, I did not have to wait.

We had been living on the eastside of Greater Seattle for over 15 years now, and it was amazing to watch the changes in Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland — the primary cities that made up of the growing eastside.

There were many more Asian shops and restaurants around (particularly some major ones opened up such as Din Tai Fung and Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot opened on the eastside before their branches on the west side).

Recent addition had been Turkish, Mediterranean and Persian grocery store (where I was able to purchase and try Persian dessert such as pashmak and Faloudeh) and restaurants.

In Bellevue alone, the 2010 census had shown that almost 41% of the population were minority or ethnic, compare to that figure was about 25% in 2000.

I believed that explained the proliferation of minority and ethnic small businesses, which of course was fantastic for foodies!

I loved Turkish Kofte and the fairly new Turkish restaurant, Sofra, opened in my neighborhood.

The version of kofte I had in Turkey was formed like little sausages –super tender meat with fantastic flavors of garlic and strong in cumin.

The menu at Sofra was on the small side, but as long as the food were good, it would be great as so many fantastic restaurants in Asia were “specialty store” that only served a handful of items.

The day of my visit, I thought Sofra did not have Kofte.

It was translated as Turkish burger, and I did not read Turkish carefully and completely missed it!

I had to go back and try my favorite Turkish dish!

Doner was next on my list.

Doner was the same as Greek gyro or Arabic shawarma.

The lamb doner at Sofra was very delicious — beautifully marinated and charred lightly on the surface to give the crisp meat layer.

It was very gamey which I loved and expected from mutton.

The rice was fluffy and was buttery goodness; accompanied by a small salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley and warm pita bread.

I remembered seeing tripe soup as special one day when I passed by the store, but was jot available on the day of my visit.

Sofra also had a small section dedicated to Turkish grocery at the back of the restaurant.

If you fancy doner, Sofra was definitely a place to visit and lovely place for a quick lunch!

Another favorite place of mine was the long time establishment of Boba Express.

I believed they had the best boba tea in the Greater Seattle area.

I usually went to the Crossroad Mall spot and knew that they had another one at Factoria Mall.

Before Boba Express, I used to only get bubble tea in Vancouver BC.

Boba Express had most definitely eliminated my need to travel for a drink.

Their bubble was cooked perfectly — soft and chewy.

Many places had them overcooked and was too soft, or that I had encountered undercook bubble that had hard and powdery center.

They also cooked or soaked their cooked bubbles in sugar so that they carried enjoyable slight sweetness versus other stores I had tasted bland bubbles that I did not care for.

My favorite was the Thai Iced Tea bubble or honey green tea bubbles.

Unfortunately the shop did use flavored syrup for many other flavors which I tried to avoid for health reasons.

They also served the most amazing popcorn chicken.

I also believe that was the best popcorn chicken in Great Seattle — better than Facing East, Yeas Wok or many other restaurants or bubble tea places.

The tender chicken pieces were consistently marinated well with strong garlic and soy flavor, and deep-fried fresh which yielded fantastically crispy and piping hot chicken pieces.

They custom-made the spiciness level with each order by tossing chili powder to the chicken pieces; and medium spicy were generally quite spicy already — what a rush!

The secret to the great tasting chicken had to do with the addition of basil.

I believe basil was tossed with the hot chicken and it imparted a nice light floral, grassy sweet basil flavor to the chicken.

I did not get the chicken often as it was deep-fried and I tried to avoid chicken and beef when eating out — it was by far the greatest guilty pleasure!

I went to Din Tai Fung for 5 specific items on their menu that I craved:

1) organic chicken soup

2) spicy vegetables and pork wonton

3) noodle with sesame sauce

4) pork soup dumplings

5) sweet and sour spare ribs

The cold cucumbers and taro dumplings were also exceptional.

The organic chicken soup was the most pure concentrated chicken soup one could ever had.

It was simply stewed with chicken pieces, ginger and green onion.

Delicate, intense and rich chicken flavor, one could taste its fat and last ounce of juice; and at the same time, simple, clear and unassuming — I just loved it.

The very first time I had the chicken soup in Taiwan Din Tai Fung, I drank 3 or 4 bowls of it.

I only stopped because I realized the bill was stacking up with one single item quickly; certainly not because I did not want more!

The vegetables and pork wonton with spicy sauce was my next favorite.

The wonton wrapping was decent with nice, soft yet crunchy fillings from the tender pork and fresh vegetables.

The star was the spicy sauce — it was garlicky and addictive.

The hot sauce was so good that they actually sold the hot sauce by the bottle as well.

The sesame noodle’s sauce was smooth, delicious and with hint of roasted peanuts; the noodle was tender and cooked just right.

I loved mixing the spicy sauce from the wonton to zest up the sesame noodle.

Of course, the meal was not complete without having their famous soup dumplings.

Granted, the Din Tai Fung in Bellevue was not Taiwan Din Tai Fung, it did serve the best soup dumpling in our area.

Thin and elastic wrapping, the small dumpling packed a great amount of soup which more often than not, burnt my palate and my tongue because I just could not resist the piping fresh, off the steamer dumplings.

The pork filling was always juicy and well-flavored with ginger.

I love the black vinegar ginger dipping sauce for the dumplings as the tartness of the vinegar accentuated the delicate soup of the dumplings.

I usually skipped the soy sauce as I felt that the dumplings were perfectly salted and the soy sauce would mask their excellent flavors.

I was obsessed with the cold sweet and sour spare ribs.

The bite-size spare ribs were coated with the fantastic sauce that was exactly tangy enough and sweet enough to be coveted at maximum.

I would be very happy to eat a whole bowl of rice just with the rib sauce!

Finally for dessert — taro dumpling.

We usually get one steamer with 2 flavors: taro and red bean, since DH liked red bean.

Personally I found the quiet and subtle taro flavor soothing and delicious; the occasional small chunks of taro gave a bite and a surprise to the filling which was thoroughly enjoyable.

We had taken to go to Din Tai Fung at odd times to avoid waiting in line; sitting at the bar was also a great option for us.

Two newish pizza joints in our Greater Seattle area, and I had the chance to visit them just couple days apart.

Passed by Humble Pie all the time in International District – couldn’t miss it as it was where the big wood-fire stood stoically by Rainier Ave.

It had a very casual, lay back, neighborhood friendly atmosphere with picnic table seating.

They grew their own chickens on site and all the ingredients for the pizzas were as organic and as local as they could get.

That day, DH had the pull pork pizza and I the mushroom and egg.

It was delicious and it was the bready and doughy kind.

The bottom was very crisp thanks to the high heat wood-fire oven, and the mids of the crust remained moist and chewy; it was not as fluffy as Tutta Bella’s yet still good.

The flavors were amazing.

This was my first experience of having a BBQ pizza without BBQ sauce!

The pull pork was a little drier but it oozed out barbeque smokiness and sweet aroma that no sauce was necessary.

The pickled onions were tasty crunchy and vinegary, and the tomato sauce was just tangy enough to be a great supporting actress.

Honestly, I believe my mushroom and egg was the winner of the 2; it felt like a harmonized choir in my mouth.

At the bass and tenor, there was the strong earthy mushrooms lightly sautéed, coupled with delicious truffle oil – the flavors were deep and grounding.

At the soprano, the fresh crisp arugula was delivering its sharp and distinctive flavor.

Finally alto, the egg: it was subtle but gave the most creamy buttery texture in the mouth with the runny egg yolk.

Both pizzas came with light and great texture cheese which was perfect for my personal preference – it lightened up the pizzas in grease level and allowed the other ingredients to shine.

My only wish to Humble Pies pizzas was to have more toppings; it felt like there was too much dough.

I wanted to go to Mercato Stellina for lunch then realized a while back that they only opened for dinner.

Tucked quietly at the edge of old Bellevue downtown, Mercato Stellina had lovely outdoor seating and was opened by the folks who had Cantinetta.

It was a treat as we went with friends and got to try 4 of their pizzas: funghi, spicy salami, speck and prosciutto.

First, crust.

Mercato’s was the thin kind, a bit dry and hard.

I was really looking forward to the funghi with truffle oil and sage but was disappointed.

The sautéed mushrooms looked and tasted not so healthy and flavor a little strange.

The truffle oil was great but the sage addition did not work well for me.

The sharp tallegio cheese was dry and sharp which was a nice compliment to the truffle flavor.

The spicy salami was quite spicy and delicious; paired really well with the slight tart and sweet tomato sauce — but the pizza had too much cheese for my taste and was a little greasy.

The prosciutto meat was also lovely, fatty and tasty, and work classically great with fresh arugula and the nutty parmesan cheese.

My speck was probably the most exciting of the 4 pizzas.

speck with pear, gorgonzola and mint

The meat itself was dry with a lovely smoky, deep and surprisingly gamey flavor; paired with thinly sliced sweet pear, tart yet sweet balsamic vinegar and the bitter strong character of gorgonzola, it was a winning flavor combination.

We also had the baby kale salad with Italian tuna and a lovely tangy dressing; and tried our friends’ super tender meat balls which had a nice tomato sauce but the flavors inside the meatball was a little bland.

Between the 2 pizza places, personally I preferred Humble Pie — the winner of this round of pizza vs.

I knew my mother-in-law really loved whole fish with bone-in; and I could trust that Top Gun would deliver a great dish for her.

Decided that we were going to get steamed fish before we arrived.

However, the restaurant threw a little curve-ball on us — upon inquiry, the smallest fish they had that night was a 3.5 lb Ling Cod.

Honestly way too much fish for 3 of us.

At the end, we decided that we were going for it, and asked for the fish to be served 3-way.

It was customary to get live fish, lobster or crab in a Cantonese style Chinese restaurant and had the live seafood divided and prepared as multiple courses.

Usually restaurants would make soup, stir-fried, steamed, or deep-fried (e.g. salt and pepper) with the fish.

For lobster or crabs, restaurants would offer up stir-fried with ginger and scallion, steamed, or deep-fried; sometimes they could make fried rice or noodle with the meat or inert, even bake in shell etc.

We picked our 3-way: soup, stir-fried with vegetables and steamed.

First was the soup.

Absolutely loved it.

It was done in a traditional way that was milky, aromatic and creamy.

My grandmother made this kind of fish soup as well and the secret was frying the fish first.

Every piece of the fish melted in the mouth with a light hint of sweetness just naturally from the fish.

The aromatics of ginger and green onions gave the flavors and the crisp and cooked just right vegetables delivered crunchiness to the overall dish.

I still have not master stir-frying fish fillet at home unfortunately; usually they would fell apart brilliantly — the skill in Chinese cooking I have yet to learn!

This was DH’s favorite as there was no work required to eat the fish fillet.

Overall, the Ling Cod was not a meaty fish, and positively for bone lovers.

I believe my mother-in-law had a good time — and it was all worth it.

Top Gun serves dim sum for lunch and it is the only eastside restaurant I am willing to go for dim sum; it is however, with eastside price tag as well, especially compare to our usual dim sum fort, Jade Garden.

Their dinners were great as well with my favorite such as Singaporean noodle, stir-fried broccoli with fish fillet and tofu clay pot.

On our recent to-go gluttony, we had my super spicy heavily curried flavor (how I liked it!) Singaporean noodle with shrimp, bbq pork, egg, green onions, onions and crisp bean sprouts. It was always dry as how it should be and delicious.

I craved for the sweetness and slight tangy sauce of the pork chop with Peking sauce; with Top Gun’s, I could even feel the crispness of the very tender pork chop underneath the super addictive sauce.

Bok Choy was fresh, crisp, sweet with garlic, and the eggplant was a bit on the greasy side but flavor still lovely with satay sauce and oysters.

Top Gun was a decent all round Cantonese style restaurant, and the owner would be opening Dim Sum Factory soon where dim sum would be served from 8 in the morning to midnight!

My girlfriend and I arrived right at 11am when they opened on a Monday and there was already a line.

Luckily, we were able to get seated fairly quickly.

The shop was not big — seat maybe about 40 people.

A very simple menu was offered: tonkotsu ramen with shouyu, shio, karamiso and miso base.

Eggs were extra; and there was toroniku – special pork cheek meats that were highly coveted.

We ordered different soup bases so we could try their variety and found ourselves comparing Santouka to Jin Ya throughout our meal.

I got the toroniku ramen with karamiso, egg on the side, and my girlfriend had the shio ramen.

We also had the pork bun as the appetizer.

Pork bun came first — and I would say overall, it was a disappointment.

The pork was fantastic — tender and fatty — but a thin slice, tucked in a bun that was on the hard side (not fluffy) with a wimpy stick of cilantro which was yellowing and some sweet miso paste.

I would actually call the pork bun bland.

I was not expecting flavor and texture bursting in my mouth (e.g. Taiwanese gua bao) since this was a Japanese style pork bun; however, I still expected better bun quality and more flavor.

Next was our ramen.

First, I had to try my girlfriend’s Shio Ramen since it was the plain unadulterated tonkotsu broth.

It was delicious!

Creamy, rich flavors of pork and pork bones, and without stickiness in the palate.

The flavors were subtle, and yet one could tell that it was a broth that was cooked over a long period of time, and that every ounce of the pork that was used had transformed into the broth.

Fantastic milky color, the broth was clearly the star, and what Santouka was famous for.

With the accent of fresh green onion, thinly sliced peppers, and pickled plum, it was a delicate, tasty broth to savor on.

For broth: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Santouka 1.

My karamiso was delicious as well; however, as expected, the miso covered up the elegant and gentle pork flavor.

L: karamiso ramen — R:toroniku pork cheek meat

I wish they would offer a spicy version without miso; and their spiciness delivery was fairly low.

Moving onto the noodles.

I actually found my noodle too cooked, and too soft, and was not Q Q bouncy anymore.

It was the yellow egg noodle traditional ramen — it was not bad, but just expected a top notch ramen store not to overcook their noodle .

For noodle: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Jin Ya 1.

Then, the pork.

The regular chashu was quite fatty, soft and tasty!

The meat portion was small, but their quality definitely shone through the bowl.

It was well-flavored – simply salted, and very little soy sauce flavor; quality meat was used to create the chashu and their website said they used rib meat only.

Just when I thought the chashu was good, my toroniku was out of this world!

Super tender, not very fatty, and amazingly melted in my mouth.

The texture of the pork cheek was clearly visible with a nice thin roasty skin and small layer of fat.

The portion on the pork cheek was generous and well worth the up charge for them.

I was just amazed by how buttery melty the pork was even without much fat!

For meat: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Santouka 1.

Finally, the must-try egg.

Very disappointing, as my egg was not runny at all; it was flavored nicely with sweetened soy sauce, but it was 60% cook through in my yolk.

For egg: Santouka vs. Jin Ya — no winner! They both failed to deliver a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg.

It was 2 to 1 on the score board for Santouka vs. Jin Ya from a taste point of view.

Lastly, price.

Santouka was quite a bit more expensive than Jin Ya, so I was definitely sticker-shocked.

With my toroniku karamiso ramen with egg on the side plus tips and tax, it was $20.

Super expensive.

Not sure I will be going there often as it was very pricy (especially compare to Vancouver, where there was delectable and cheaper ramen); it would be an option if I have a severe case of ramen craving and do not want to drive 3 hours.

Inside the candy, one would find finely chopped peanuts and sometimes coconut.

Having dragon beard candy was a textural journey of its own; and it was considered a culinary art of China.

Pashmak was very similar to dragon beard candy.

The strands were coarser than dragon bear candy, and it looked like sesame was blended with sugar.

It was not formed like a cocoon and with no stuffing inside.

The initial sensation was a huge hit of vanillin flavor in the mouth; then I could feel the texture of many threads, which disappear relatively quickly — similar to melting cotton candy in the mouth, created this silky and velvety sensation.

Very shortly as the interest in texture faded away, a huge wave of roasted sesame, nutty flavor surged right up.

Pistachio were sparsely interlaced among the strands and gave a crunchy texture to an otherwise soft and delicate texture.

All these sensorial experience happened in manner of seconds — making Pashmak a unique tasting experience.

As a dessert with sugar as one of the primary ingredients, I was surprised to find it not too sweet.